Planning for new opportunities

Planningfornewopportunities
EmploymentCare

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EmploymentCare

Planning for new opportunities

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Planning for new opportunities
© 2012 EmploymentCare & bookboon.com
ISBN 978-87-403-0060-4

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Planning for new opportunities

Contents

Contents
Introduction

6

1

What does it take to land a new job?

7

1.1

Be proactive

8

1.2

Recognise the best in yourself

9

1.3

Learn from your experiences

10

1.4

Try something new

12

1.5

Set targets

12

1.6

Go the extra mile

13

1.7

Accept help from others

14

1.8

Job-hunting is a full-time job

14

1.9

Practical conditions

15

1.10

Step 1: Daily job-hunting timetable

16

2

he overall parameters for your job search

17

2.1

he overall parameters for your job search

18

2.2

Assignment

20

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Planning for new opportunities

Contents

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Your options and preferences

21

3.1

Considerations

22

3.2

Use your experience

26

3.3

How to proceed

27

3.4

Look back to look ahead

28

3.5

Your level of ambition

29

3.6

Your values

30

3.7

Put your dreams into words

31

3.8

Kickstart your dreams

31

3.9

Your innermost dreams

32

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Planning for new opportunities

Introduction

Introduction
‘Planning for new opportunities’ is a step-by-step booklet that helps you to understand what it takes to land a new job.
We will cover the overall parameters for your job search and you will gain an overview of your qualiications and options,
so you approach your job search in a more clearly targeted manner.
Our vision is to make it easier for you and help you ind a new job as quickly as possible.
Students that are about to graduate oten don’t quite know how best to approach job-hunting. Being a jobseeker can be
very stressful, because there are so many things you need to do.
Most people approach the task in a fairly disorganised manner and just muddle through.
‘Planning for new opportunities’ structures the process from start to inish, so that you approach job-hunting one step
at a time.
he process is built up in such a way that once you have completed all of the steps, you’ll have done everything possible
to plan your job hunt and you are then ready to ind your job.
At each step, you will acquire the knowledge and tools you need to ind a job.

he idea is to help you get of to a good start and the 3 steps to do so are:
• Step 1 What does it take to get a new job?
• Step 2 he overall parameters for your job search
• Step 3 Your options and ambitions
Each step consists of an explanatory text that provides in-depth information and guidance on how to approach the task

at hand.
Once you have studied the text, you’ll be all set to carry out each task in practice.

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Planning for new opportunities

What does it take to land a new job?

1 What does it take to land a new
job?
In this irst step we look at how to ind a new job as quickly as possible.
Despite the inancial crisis, new opportunities still pop up all the time in all sorts of companies. Always bear in mind
that it IS possible to ind a new job.
Every company has people who hand in their notice, get promoted, take maternity or paternity leave, are on long-term
sick leave and retire. his creates vacancies that have to be illed as soon as possible.
New businesses start up all the time, and they need staf. Some companies are doing very well and growing, so they
regularly recruit new staf as well.

he big challenge for you as a jobseeker is to ind these vacancies, write a good application and get the job. To do this,
you have to:
• be proactive and seek out opportunities
• recognise the best in yourself – otherwise you won’t be able to pass it on to others
• learn from experience – spend time on what works and produces results
• be willing to ask others for help
• be prepared to see job-hunting as a full-time job – albeit a temporary one.
If you accept these ive points, you should be able to ind a new job sooner or later.
In this step, you will read more about the above points, and what you have to do to land a new job.

It’s important to realise that you are now your own boss. Your job is to go out and sell a product to a company – that
product consists of your qualiications and personality

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Planning for new opportunities

1.1

What does it take to land a new job?

Be proactive

Be prepared to be creative and proactive. Job-hunting requires extra efort on all fronts.
Decide to be proactive and take full responsibility for your situation. Don’t sit down and wait for your dream job to be
advertised. If you do, it may well be a long wait.

Think positively
hink in terms of options rather than limitations.
Despite that it might be diicult to ind a job it’s important that you look at the situation in a way that doesn’t afect your
self-conidence – and therefore your search for a new job.

For many it is tough mentally to be a job seeker. It’s important to be open about your state of mind – it’s OK to tell people
that you don’t feel great.
Just make sure that negative thinking doesn’t come to dominate your job search – it may afect the tone of your applications,
which will make it even more diicult to make a good impression and be called to an interview.
It’s quite normal that you sometimes feel discouraged and worried about the future. his happens to us all. You mustn’t
feel that you’re the only person in the world who feels that way. But it’s important that it doesn’t become a permanent

state of mind. You have to make a conscious efort to change your mood and keep faith in the idea that you will succeed.
A good way of keeping up your spirits is to put into words what you’re thinking and how you’re feeling. Talk to somebody
you know well – somebody who has a generally positive outlook on life, who is a good listener, and who is capable of
providing input and making practical suggestions.
his will give you a boost and help you move on. If you talk about it with somebody who has a negative attitude, you
won’t move on. You’ll both agree that things look bleak and you’ll get nowhere. he trick is to turn to somebody you
trust, someone who will help you move on – not hold you back.
he human psyche is such that if we have negative expectations for our future, then there is every likelihood that we will
end up trapped in a negative spiral.

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Planning for new opportunities

What does it take to land a new job?

Example:
You see in the news that unemployment is rising and you think to yourself: ”I knew it! here’s no point looking for a job.”
If you feel that way, when you see an ad for a job that is perfect for you, you won’t be especially motivated to spend a lot
of time applying for it. Your subconscious will already have absorbed the message that “there’s no point”.
You should always be acutely aware of what your subconscious is telling you, and try to maintain a positive attitude.
Look at it this way: You now have the chance to ind a job where you can use your knowledge from your studies – and
make a decent living! You should also come to terms with the fact that jobs don’t grow on trees and that you’ll have to
put in a lot of efort if you are to succeed. We will look at exactly how to achieve this in the later steps.

1.2

Recognise the best in yourself

We have a tendency to judge ourselves extremely harshly. We see our failings and shortcomings instead of all the good
things we have to ofer.
When you are unemployed and looking for a job, it’s easy to think “I don’t have any training”, “I have gaps in my CV”,
“I’m too young”, and so on. But that will get you nowhere.
For a start, we’re all lesh and blood. We all have our good and bad sides, things we’re good at and other things we’re not
so good at, and life throws up new challenges all the time. Job-hunting is “just” another challenge that we need to face
and cope with.
You need to focus on your best features – even if they’re sometimes diicult to see through the black clouds hanging
over you.
You need to convince yourself that you have fantastic qualities – both professional and personal – to ofer your employer.
If you can’t see the good in yourself, you won’t be able to present it in your application or put it into words during an
interview.
It’s essential that you learn to recognise the best in yourself and practise communicating it to others. his should be the
starting point for your search for a new job. A good way of doing this is to ask other people, including former colleagues,
to come up with observations about you – both positive and negative.

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Planning for new opportunities

What does it take to land a new job?

Ask them “What am I like as a person?” or “What was I like as a fellow student?” his will give you an insight into what
others think of you, which you can use when you have to “sell yourself ” in an application or interview.
“Hitting the wall” and feeling completely down about your situation is fairly natural. A large part of our identity is
associated with our work. We are thinking, feeling people, so it’s only natural that we take it personally when we are
having diiculties in inding a job.

It’s all too easy to feel that it will never end, that you are doomed to perpetual unemployment. But remember – nothing
lasts forever. Something’s bound to turn up if you keep going and keep being proactive. When you’ve been beaten down,
the most important thing is that you get back on your feet. Make no mistake, it IS hard when rejections arrive in a steady
stream and interviews are few and far between.
Make sure you spend time with other jobseekers. Read each other’s applications and help each other to write better and
better ones as you learn what works and what doesn’t.
Share your experiences and tell each other what you’ve been up to since the last time you met. You may even have heard
of a company that it would be worth approaching with an unsolicited application. Meeting up like this helps you build up
the support network that’s so crucial to your well-being. You’ll see yourself relected in the experiences of others. You’ll
see that you’re not alone in the world; that others are just as frustrated as you.

1.3

Learn from your experiences

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” (Quote: Anthony Robbins)

If you want to succeed in inding a new job, you have to be prepared to improve and adjust your job-hunting techniques
and methods all the time.

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